GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Renewed fighting broke out Friday between the regular army and renegade troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Nord-Kivu province, a local spokesman with the UN mission in DRC said.

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"Clashes have been reported from Katsiru, a village between Mweso and Kitchanga," almost 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the provincial capital Goma, which lies on the Rwandan border, MONUC spokesman Claude Cyrille said.

He gave no details, but Kitchanga is one stronghold of ex-general Laurent Nkunda, a dissident officer turned local warlord who claims to be protecting the minority Congolese Tutsi population in the eastern Kivu provinces.

His men are fighting troops of the 15th Brigade of the FARDC (regular army) and on Thursday drove back an attack by the 14th Brigade, further south, which tried to take their strategic position at Mushake, 30 kilometres from Goma.

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The Mushake sector was quiet on Friday after hostilities ceased, the deputy commander of the 14th Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel John Tshibangu, told AFP, but he had on Thursday said the FARDC was regrouping and determined to take control there.

Since early September, Nkunda's men, numbered by MONUC at more than 5,000, have battled at least 15,000 FARDC troops in Nord-Kivu in breach of a ceasefire mediated by MONUC.

The fighting led UN organisations in Kinshasa jointly to warn Friday of a humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Nkunda on Wednesday proposed a new ceasefire and for the first time made an offer to send 500 of his men for demobilisation and potential integration into the army under a national military reform programme.

However, Defence Minister Diemu Chikez responded cautiously Thursday, when he said the government acknowledged the renewed ceasefire request, but told AFP the army "has only been responding to Nkunda's attacks."

"He announces an end to the truce on Monday, then on Wednesday evening, he wants a ceasefire. We take note, but we're waiting to see how this works out on the ground," Chikez added.

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MONUC, the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, has deployed 4,500 of its 17,500 troops to Nord-Kivu, but they are unable to halt the fighting and assert authority in tropical forests, volcanic highland terrain and along more than 200 kilometres of border with Rwanda.

Since January, Nkunda has recruited hundreds of demobilised Rwandan troops and some of his men wear Rwandan army uniforms and are equipped with up-to-date communications equipment, according to MONUC and AFP journalists who have dealt with them.

One FARDC officer has anonymously claimed that overnight on October 6, two Rwandan army battalions drove up to the border in Virunga National Park north of Goma, "then crossed it on foot towards Tonga," but Nkunda has categorically denied allegations he has direct Rwandan military support.

Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online Quill Magazine, the Huffington (more...)